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Porsche have officially converted rumour into fact with the announcement of the 718 Cayman T.

In the same vein that the Carrera T does, the new 718 Cayman T sits between the base and S versions of it's Cayman siblings and boasts a similar level of specification amendments designed to appeal to those seeking a more driver focused offering.

In terms of high level spec, the T is offered with the 296bhp 2.0 litre engine from the base car, which some will be disappointed with, albeit the performance from this unit is arguably still very much enough for a road car. What you do get though over the base car is PVT which includes a limited slip diff, again appealing to those with a penchant for anything over an 8 tenths driving style. 20mm lower suspension and sports chrono are also standard on the T.

Performance figures suggest a top speed of 171mph, with 0-60mph taking just 4.5secs (if you spec PDK) and 0-100mph around 11 seconds.
The 718 T’s attributes are shared with the 911 Carrera T, in that the sat nav and media systemhave been removed to save some weight and give the Cayman a more hardcore feeling. But you can add it all back in for nothing (in the same way as you could with the 987 Cayman R), and most owners likely will.

In terms of pricing. The 718 Cayman T starts at £51,145, gaining £5,071 over the base car, which sits an uncomfortably £700 shy of the 718 S.

The expectation however is that this will be a more focused and appealing car in the same way as the Carrera T is and many will be asking "is this finally Porsche's replacement for the iconic and sublime Cayman R?"

I thought i'd give an update on a few changes we're introducing to the OC and how things have progressed over the last 12 months or so.

We're really proud of how the OC has grown, we started out in November 2015 as some of you will remember, and today marks our 3 year anniversary (Happy birthday to us!!). The team have worked hard to grow the club and with valued member support we now have over 1,500 members which is fantastic. The OC meets and events are steadily growing in popularity, the forums are an active source of information and a great social experience and something to be really proud of. So thank you to all who contribute to this experience.

With success comes challenges, how we manage the forum and keep content and user experience ahead off the game is important to the team, and with increased activity on the forums requires better infrastructure, more bandwidth and storage space. It will be no surprise that these all come at a cost to the OC. We discussed increasing advertising on the website, member subscriptions and other ways to help the running of the OC, but at the same time very conscious that we do not want a website full of adverts ruining members experience. We also decided that forcing members to pay to join was not where we wanted to be either. So, as of today we are introducing membership options which will provide 3 tiers of membership each with their own benefits and ensure we do not limit the experience to anybody.

Standard Membership will be free, it will allow use of the forum in much the same way as now, albeit with limited functions which generally are those that require using storage space on the servers such as gallery uploads, forum signatures etc.

Premium Membership, will be an enhanced package that will include among other things, access all areas, free classified adverts, newsletter and some goodies!

Platinum Membership will be the top tier and will provide members with exclusive benefits and goodies and less visible adverts when using the website and forum.

We will no longer be offering advert free subscriptions to the site, those that have paid for a year will continue with advert free until their subscription expires.

If you are currently a Club Contributor, you will be moved to Premium Member with a complimentary first year membership for free.

More details of the membership options are available here

Any questions, feel free to get in touch with myself, or any of the team.

Well the rumours are becoming more beefed up in regard to the possibility of the Cayman T arriving and following in the footsteps of it's larger brother, the Carrera T. It could also go someway towards bringing back some of what Porsche gave us with the 987 Cayman R and have never really delivered on again either with the 981 or 718, the GTS being a bit soft and the GT4 being a bit, well GT.

Our favorite mid-engined coupe from Stuttgart will be going under the knife and and our sources suggest that the Cayman T will be losing c. 30kg over the standard 718 and gaining 10-20hp more making for a slightly keener drive, but falling a bit short of the GTS in the power stakes.

The Cayman T will be introduced as a 2019 model year car, although deliveries falling quite late into the year with the first likely to hit the UK roads in early summer.

Sitting just above the 718 S but below the GTS, the Cayman T will come with a sports exhaust system, and 20-inch alloy wheels. It will also get 20 mm closer to the ground. The Sport Chrono Package is expected to be offered as standard which includes Porsche Active Driveline Mounts and launch control. The manual gearbox optioned models will come equipped with a rev-matching function.

The next-gen GT4 has been spotted testing at Monza in CS guise. As we reported earlier in the year, the 2019 car will get a 4.0-litre borrowed from the 911 GT3 which is expected to deliver in excess of 400hp.

The road going version's spec is still yet to be unveiled...PDK, Manual, PDK AND Manual....watch this space. For now, enjoy the video!

We'll be holding the first one of the Cayman Breakfast Meets on the 23rd of September at the Super Sausage Cafe, venues after that will be different so watch this space and/or the Facebook page for the events invites!

Stuttgart is currently working on a rally derivative of the the GT4 based on the previous gen car. The company’s motorsport arm posted on Twitter the other day a series of images of a rally car study based on the current Cayman GT Clubsport. The car will serve as a course car later this month during the Rallye Deutschland and is going to be driven by Romain Dumas, none other than the new record holder at Pikes Peak with the I.D. R electric rally car.

Porsche has not been forth coming with details of the drive train and other interesting bits, but has said it will decide on a production version later this year. The car appears to be based on a 981 GT4 Clubsport, but with extra modifications customary to a rally car such as the light pod on the bonnet, a roof air intake, and a very flat underside presumably for both protection and aerodynamics.

We await news and will be watching to see how this develops. It will be the first time Porsche has entered a factory car into a rally event since the very early 1980s.

Hi all, after a chat with Nick on Sunday, we agreed that the club should put more events on ECT, and I sort off said I would see what I could do lol.
Anyway so before I get stuck in, I feel I need to introduce myself to you all, some will know me others not.
Have owned 2 Porsche Cayman's, 981 GTS and GT4 and before that I have a long history with the Ford RS range and over the 25 plus years I did many roles for the club, one being involved with sorting and running shows, so I have a good back ground in sorting stuff, anyway enough off that and back to what's this post is all about.

So then shows, trips and meets. I would like to try and sort more stuff out for us all, as seeing a nice stand full of Cayman's and the owners chatting and enjoying themselves is what it's all about and with many shows over the summer month's I am sure we can arrange more meets and hopefully a trip.

So any ideas on what you would like to see a stand at then please let me know and as long as we get a few that want to do it I don't mind arranging it.
I don't mind sorting tickets out ( as done all that in the past and still have a car only account set up just for tickets ect) but a few ideas that I have right now are

Weymouth Porsche on the prom 13th July
Silverstone classic, runs from 20th to 22nd July
Yorkshire Porsche festival 5th August
WEC 6 hours of silverstone 17th to 19th August
Brands Hatch Festival of Porsche 2nd September
Porsche club national concours 22nd September
Plus we have the A5 meet at the supper sausage and may be a trip down to the Ace cafe.
But one trip I would really like to sort out is a few days away in the alps, the ring on the way back may be, as I feel that would be a fantastic driving trip away.

Also lots of Porsche track days up and down the country that might be of interest.
I am off to LeMans next week and once again that is a great trip.

Anyway cheers for reading this and hope that you would like to maybe do one, or even a few. But as said ideas are more than welcome
Cheers dunc

More info and discussion thread: http://www.caymanoc.com/forums/topic/1328-sorting-out-stands-and-meets/

Porsche has announced its 600-hp Tesla opponent will be called the Taycan.

This Friday Porsche introduced the official name of its new electric GT car that will take on Tesla's Model S marking 70 years of Porsche sports cars.

Taycan, roughly translated as "lively young horse," references the imagery at the heart of the Porsche crest, which features a leaping horse.

"Our new electric sports car is strong and dependable; it's a vehicle that can consistently cover long distances and that epitomizes freedom," Porsche chief Oliver Blume said in a statement. The car is expected to be open for orders in early 2019, with deliveries being taken later that year.

Powered by two synchronous motors generating more than 600 hp, the Taycan can do 0 to 100 kph (62 mph) in less than 3.5 seconds. The vehicle has a driving range of more than 500 km (310 miles) on a single charge under NEDC testing.

We will be keeping a very close eye on this car and welcome potential new Taycan owners here at CaymanOC. Forget flat-4 shinnanigans, here's the future people, is it bright...?

So the debate will always continue, but as Catchpole rightly points out in this video by Carfection, Porsche have listened to their discerning customers have have recently re-introduced the manual box on it's GT3.

Andreas Preuninger, head of Porsche’s GT program, recently commented that the GT3 “is full of systems that make sense on the track, but for the purist, there may be something lost”. He also added “it is our long-term goal to have the customer decide between the two approaches”.

Most interestingly though is the 911.2 GT3 is actually a 6 speed box rather than the 7 speed manual found in other Carrera models. It will be interesting to see what approach Porsche take with the upcoming 718 GT4 model in this regard.

From the land of the rising sun has emerged a 987 Cayman like no other. It is often phrase head in Cayman circles "what if Porsche put the GT3 engine in a 987". Well, now its been done, and this time in a package which appears so thoroughly executed.

Allow me to introduce M’s Machine Work's Cayman GT3.

The car is the work of Takayuki Mizumoto, a Japanese motorsport engineer. Mizumoto-san is the proprietor of M’s Machine Works, an outfit that designs, builds and manufactures bespoke components for the Super GT race series, a race series for road-going cars made famous for being incredibly fast. This latest project car from Mizumoto-san however is not a race entry, it's a road legal track toy - for pleasure!!

Taking a closer look at the spec of this hooligan Cayman the obvious place to begin is the engine, which in fairness needs very little introduction. The Mezger derived lump is from a 997 GT3 Cup car providing c. 450bhp. OK, so it has been done before, we know Jurgen Alzen Motorsports entered a similar set-up in the GT4 series, but they were not road legal...and they didn't look this good! The transplanted engine is kept alive using a Motec ECU and the engine is mated to a manual 6 speed transmission with a custom LSD. One hopes with some form of adjustment to the final drive.

Cosmetic surgery has been performed quite extensively making the resemblance from a base 987 quite distant. The front end has been reconfigured with 997 GT3 facelift but with a few custom teaks and downforce enhancing upgrades including a carbon fibre splitter, oversized dive planes and a more aerodynamic flatter floor. Mizumoto-san has increased the track by some noticeable margin on the car, the result is a car requiring some rather extreme wide arches. The rear of the car is barely recognisable as a Cayman of any known species with hardly any bumper to speak of, a rear wing that quite honestly is super-massive and a rear diffuser spanning nearly the whole width of the car. This an extreme make-over, but one which has genuine performance enhancements at the core of its design.

The interior of the car has not escaped the motorsport inspired treatment either, a race spec steering wheel, fully fitted roll cage, air jack, poly windows and a whole other heap of goodies adorning the stripped out cabin again point to this being a seriously specced racer.

Finishing touches include the lightweight Volk wheels, super sticky Advan tyres and plenty of vinyl die-cuts plastered across the car. This is certainly an impressive machine and track times posted by Mizumoto-san are even more so. With a 100kg weight saving over a GT4 and plenty more power you'd hope so though.

There are rumours of a MkII car which will feature a GT2 engine instead of the naturally aspirated GT3 motor, we await news...

A member started a thread on the forum this week entitled ‘what’s in your garage’, and it got us thinking, the garage, man-cave, ‘office’, call it what you will it’s the pride of many a petrol head’s home. In fact some examples that can be found around the web are indeed enough to make you realise that even your bedroom is more than due for a lick of paint, because some people are taking better care of their cars than you are of yourself and your family it seems.

Many of you have probably seen ’12 Gauge Garage’, the pride and joy clearly of one man and his classic 911 – it’s worth a look because this particular garage has its very own website.

Jack Olsen’s Garage

You delve a bit deeper into this micro universe of garages and you begin to realise that this is more than just a passion for some folk, We’d almost put some owners up there with the likes of Howard Hughes. Eating your dinner from the bench is standard, some appear to be of a level of cleanliness that has far surpassed that, it would without a doubt put the NHS to shame; although open heart surgery is tricky with a 13mm ratchet, we’ve been told..

The garages (or garage rooms as some should be) that really impressed us are those which have an element of architectural interest about them or with some imaginative design aspect. This particular garage is a marvel to behold, enjoy…

TR Built Garage

We would prefer to see some more members garages personally, if it contains your pride and joy Cayman or a selection of fine vintage and classic Stuttgart metal then that it goes without saying it will be more than welcome here, but we’re equally intrigued to see what else graces your should-be car space, washing machine and ride-on lawn mowers included.

For those of you that don’t know allow me to introduce Magnus Walker and if you don’t know the man chances are you’ve seen his ’71 911T no.277 which has graced the covers of several Porsche magazines over the last few years. Like the R-Gruppe founder Cris Huergas before him Magnus is a marmite man… If you love early 911’s then you’ll either love or hate what he does. Either way his passion for Porsche and particularly his love for the 911 is plain to see but before we get into the cars let’s talk about the man.

“Porsche collection – Out of control hobby” is where it begins (sounds familiar) and a forum thread posted on the “bird” gives us an insight into his collection of SWB 911’s from 64 to 72, it’s a great read, all 152 pages!

“Out of Control Hobby”

“Outlaw” is a fitting phrase he’s coined for his collection but what makes these cars special, what sets them apart is the single minded vision of their owner. By his own admission he’s “not your regular Porsche guy”. The first thing you notice is his beard and dreadlocks tucked up in a cap or oversized beany, The layered plaid shirts over jeans and boots is total rock’n’roll and the sparkle in his eyes when he talks about his cars is that of a man living the dream and sharing his passion. Born in Sheffield he went to the states in ’86 and ended up in LA forming his fashion label Serious Clothing in ’94, setting up shop in the Arts District of LA, the rest as they say is history.

His goal is to have a 911 for every year of production between ’64 & ’73, he currently has ’64, ’65, ’66, ’68, ’69, ’70, ’71 & ’72 and each one is unique. Magnus has built what he would call “street-able, track-able, hot-rod cars” and there is no denying it, all his Outlaws are fabulous cars created from period shells and a pursuit of perfection that isn’t comparable to the regular “factory stock” approach. But let us be clear these are not “backdated” 3.0 SC’s or Carrera 3.2’s these are authentic period 911’s. Although they’re not “matching numbers cars” each one is tuned, beautifully finished and crafted by Magnus. The attention to detail is inspiring, the gradual addition of elements to give each car a unique personality and character is what sets them apart but most importantly these aren’t museum pieces, these cars are driven.

Of course that’s not the whole story… Now Magnus is suffering from a condition that some of us have experienced Turbo fever. Now we all know that there is only one medicine to reduce the burning all-consuming desire… But Magnus has taken it to the next level and has 4! Three from ’76 & one from ’77 all 3 litre non inter-cooled cars, one of which was the first registered Turbo Carrera in the USA. As you would imagine these cars are also stunning and some have signature ‘Magnus Walker 911’ elements, rather than ramble on I’ll let him explain in his own words…

“G.O.A.D” is an acronym we’re going to adopt at CaymanOC if you haven’t guessed what it means yet then Magnus can enlighten you, it’s simple;

With the wealth of knowledge on internet forums these days one would think that given the number of times we hear the phrase ‘Mezger’ (often twinned with ‘bullet proof‘) we ought to have some vague knowledge of the history of this terminology used to describe the engine used in various GT and Turbo 911 derivatives. Of course we know the name, but who is Hans Mezger, and probably more importantly why is his name so synonymous with these Porsche engines?

Born in November 1929 in Besigheim, Swabia, and after narrowly missing being called up to fight in the dying days of Germany’s war effort Mezger went on to graduate from Stuttgart Technical University with an engineering degree. Upon graduating Mezger had a number of opportunities to work with various large automotive companies however the first stepping stone on his chosen employment path was for a then rather small company known as Porsche which was to be his employer for the next nearly 40 years. After a few years with Porsche he moved into the design department and worked on the 804 flat-8 Formula 1 engine. This led eventually to his most notable works on the 917, here Mezger led Porsche’s development of turbocharging with the 1100 hp 917/30.

Mezger’s involvement with the 917 in 1968 was to be a definitive moment in his career as 2 years later in 1970 Porsche won their first victory at Le Mans and various other endurance events that same year. Porsche were the team to beat, and indeed Ferrari desperate to compete and develop an engine worthy of doing so had sold half of their stock to Fiat to finance it.

So Mezger, having developed the flat-four from the 356 into the flat six for the 901 and 911 back in 1963 an engine he managed to develop from 1.4 to 3.6 liters then found himself back in Formula 1. Ron Dennis, a director of McLaren Racing International, approached Porsche to design a Grand Prix engine which would replace the DFV in his John Barnard designed cars. Two months later on October 12th design work for the new McLaren power plant was handed over to Hans Merger, now Porsche’s deputy head of engine research and development. Mezger was responsible for the TAG V6 engine which dominated Formula One in the late ’80s nestled in the middle of the McLaren F1 cars and went on to be responsible for 3 consecutive drivers championships.

So what of the ‘Mezger Engine’, where did it really begin. Many refer to the original being developed for the Porsche 911 GT1 car, but this wasn’t unveiled until 1996 and we know that Mezger retired from Porsche in 1994, so the roots surely are further back and looking at the GT1 power plant we know it was a creation of the alloy casings derived from the 930 turbo and the 962/4 partly water cooled motor that was then coupled with a full dry sump. So a more fitting description for Mezger’s touch in the later GT and Turbo cars must go back a long way and then taking in aspects of the early 901/911 engines and elements of the TAG F1 engines derived from the Porsche Group-C cars. Confusing isn’t it?

This year Mezger celebrates his 89th birthday and apparently still retains close relations with his former employer. Hans Mezger was responsible for many great creations and motorsport achievements during his career with Porsche. His name is synonymous with some of the greatest engines in Porsches history including the 911 GT/Turbo engines which have become colloquially known by his very name whether slightly misleading of their immediate heritage or otherwise.

For a more in-depth look into the life and career of Hans Mezger we would recommend reading the autobiographical title ‘Porsche and Me: Hans Mezger’ by Peter Morgan.

Full details on the production version of Porsche's all-electric performance car

So how much do you want to know about the real Mission E, the all-electric performance car that Porsche are bringing in to production in 2019.
The details are interesting, the car looks fantastic, travels at ludicrous speed and provides some much needed competition to the Tesla cars.

Design
The 2019 Mission E will launch with a sports coupe style with a low and sleek profile, very similar to the first concept we saw in September 2015. There are some subtle changes though, namely the wide arches which is a shame but maybe to be expected.

The car will use a slightly re-desinged version of the body shell from the Cross Turismo, albeit with a different roof and will ride much lower.

Performance
Mission-E will do 0-62mph in ‘less than 3.5 seconds’ and It’ll also get to 125mph in ‘less than’ 12 seconds and have a top speed of ‘more than’ 155mph says Porsche officially and we believe the 'less/more-than' is the important aspect of these claims phrase. We fully expect typical Porsche conservatism on the numbers here.

These bonkers statistics are delivered by a pair of powerful motors, front and rear, totalling more than 600bhp. They’re the permanent magnet synchronous type, as used by Nissan and others. They’re more power-dense and temperature-stable than Tesla’s induction motors.

To keep the acceleration strong all the way to top speed, two-speed gearboxes will be used. The 918 decouples its front motor at speed; it’s conceivable the Mission E will have a two-speed box at the back and a decoupling clutch at the front. It’s fundamentally a rear-biased car anyway, as the rear motor is more powerful than the front.

Braking
As you would expect of a Porsche the braking is going to be pack leading and Porsche confirms it will have computer ‘blended’ braking where the pedal is effectively a request for retardation rather than a mechanical link to the discs. A computer works out whether to get that retardation from the discs or the motors.

Noise
Ok, so following the 718 Cayman release we all know how emotional we can be with how a Porsche should sound. The Mission-E won’t sound like a flat 6 for obvious reasons. However Porsche R&D chief Michael Steiner says: “It needs to be low noise, but with more emotion. But not a false V8 or flat-six sound. We could synthesise that, but it would be silly. The sound will be linked to the technology.”

Battery Charge & Range
It takes just fifteen minutes to charge the Mission-E, from flat to 80%. By about 2020, there will be a network of EV chargers across continental Europe, no more than 75 miles apart. They also include a contactless payment system, so as soon as you drive up they’re ready to go.

There are currently a plethora of different routes to charging your electric vehicle and different methods to pay and which will work and which won't. We expect a format war of sorts over the coming years and hopefully they will one day all accept the same USB plug

Porsche claim the Mission-E will cover 500km on the NEDC cycle but expect a lot less in real world driving. This still falls short of the Tesla comparable models which is disappointing.